Exhibition of Chinese paintings / part of the collection of Professor Isaac Taylor Headland, Ph.D., Peking university, March 13th to 19th 1909

EXHIBITION OF CHINESE PAINTINGS / PART

OF THE COLLECTION OF PROFESSOR ISAAC
TAYLOR HEADLAND, PH.D., PEKING
UNIVERSITY, MARCH 13TH TO 19TH 1909

Isaac Taylor Headland

Century Club, New York

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EXHIBITION OF

CHINESE PAINTINGS

PART OF THE COLLECTION OF

Professor ISAAC TAYLOR HEADLAND, Ph.D.
PEKING UNIVERSITY

AT THE

CENTURY CLUB , N.Y,
MARCH THIRTEENTH TO NINETEENTH
NINETEEN HUNDRED AND NINE

A/D

2-Dgl, S'

IRVING PRESS
119 and 121 East Thirty-first Street
New York

INTRODUCTION

J

C HINESE ART is said by native writers to have
begun with their writing, but our earliest records of
portraits are about 1324 B.C. It must have made
considerable progress by the time of Confucius, about 550
B.C., for we find in the Confucian analects that “A disciple
asked Confucius for the meaning of the following verse:

Her coquettish smiles,

How dimpling they are;

Her beautiful eyes,

How beaming they are;

Oh fairest is she

Who is simple and plain.”

“In painting,” answered the Sage, “ornamentation and
color are matters of secondary importance compared with
the ground work.” This quotation is from a poem which
the master did not admit into the Book of Poetry, and
probably refers to a painting of some ancient “beauty,” as
the poem is of this class.

There were two important portrait galleries erected and
filled with portraits about the time of the beginning of our
era. One of these was called the Cloud Terrace Hall and
in it were placed the portraits of the 28 heroes who had
helped to found the East Han dynasty which began about
the year 1 of our era. (Four others were added later.) The
second of these Halls or galleries was called the Chou Rung
Li Tien. It was built of stone and on its walls were fres¬
coed the portraits of the great sages, heroes and female
worthies of the Hsia, Shang and Chou dynasties, the time
anterior to the building of the Great Wall, 221 B.C. Among
these were included Confucius and his seventy disciples.

Another important gallery was the Han Lu Ling Kuang
Tien, in which was painted all varieties of living creatures,
miscellaneous articles, bogies from the mountains and mon-

[ 3 ]

strosities from the sea, in colors which harmonized with the
original, or what the artist thought the original ought to be.
It is not improbable that these were pictures similar to what
are found in the Shan Hai Ching (Mountain and Sea
Classic), a bogie book common in the Chinese shops to-day.

Ming Ti (65 A.D.) established the custom of having
court painters, and introduced Buddhism into China. After
the introduction of this alien religion Confucianism and
Taoism sprang into new life, and the period from 300 to 600
A.D. was a time of strife for supremacy between these three
religions. Buddhism and Taoism both began to build
temples and decorate them with pictures of their gods and
immortals, and Confucianism in order to vie with them
erected similar temples and decorated them with portraits
of its heroes, for as most of us know Confucianism is little
more than a hero-worship. A careful study of this period
will show us that Art in the Orient, as in the Occident, was
developed by its contact with religion.

During this period we have four great artists—Ts’ao Fu-
hsing, Ku K’ai-chih, Lu T’an-wei, and Chang Seng-yu, whose
reputation, like that of the Italian and other European
masters, was won by their decoration of the temples with
portraits of heroes or pictures of immortals, fairies, gods or
demons.

With the close of this period we come to the T’ang dy¬
nasty (618-905 A.D.) during which we have in China the
Elizabethan age of poetry, music, literature and art.
During this period were founded the three great schools of
art. The Northern School, which is characterized by a
good deal of color in its work, by Li Ssu-hsiin and his son
Li Chao-tao (651-716 A.D.); and the Southern School,
which depended for its merit on the beauty of its caligraphy,
by the great poet Wang Wei (699-759 A.D.), whose poems
were said to be pictures without color, and his pictures
poems without words, and the Japanese school by Wu
Tao-tze (Go Do Shi) 8th Century.

Between the T’ang and the Sung dynasties we have the
names of two great masters, Ching Hao and Tung K’uan.

[ 4 ]

With the Sung dynasty (905 A.D.) we begin a period
which had a tremendous influence on Japan. Chao Po-chii
(12th Century) was the earliest of the great Sung artists,
though Ma Yuan (12th and 13th Centuries) and Hsia Kuei
(13th Century), are more widely known in Japan and conse¬
quently in the West. The two men perhaps whose works are
most highly prized by the Chinese are Mi Fei (1051-1107
A.D.) and his son, Mi Yu-jen (12th Century). They origi¬
nated a style of landscape painting very different from that
of any other Sung artist, in which their mountains tapered
to steep peaks and their valleys were filled with clouds.

The Yuan or Mongol dynasty occupied the throne for
one hundred years. During this period we have the names
of four great painters. Chao Tze-ang (1254-1322 A.D.), who
enjoys the reputation of being the greatest painter of horses
China has ever had. His wife, the Lady Ylian, and his son
were both well-known artists. The second of these four was
Huang Kung-wang (1269-1355 A.D.), by many considered
the greatest of the Ylian masters, whose work is character¬
ized by his truncated mountains and deep ravines. The
third is Wang Meng (14th Century), and the fourth Ni Tsan
(1301-1374 A.D.), a peculiar, irregular but very powerful
painter, whom few if any have been able to imitate.

The Ming dynasty, in spite of all previous critics and
criticisms, contains some of the most attractive work I have
seen. Ch’iu Ying (15th Century) has been imitated by
more artists than any other of the Ming masters. His
work lacks the force and vigor perhaps of the Sung mas¬
ters, but it contains a naturalness and an attention to detail
which I have not yet found in any of his predecessors.
Wen Cheng-ming (1470-1559 A.D.) is said to have dis¬
covered Ch’iu Ying and to have been his teacher. T’ang
Yin (1470-1523 A.D.) ranks with the two already named as
do Tung Ch’i-ch’ang (1555-1636 A.D.) and Lan Ying. One
of the best products of the Ming work that I have been
able to secure is by Mrs. Wang, whose artist or maiden
name was Wu Chuan. It is a picture in 12 scrolls of 100
birds paying their respects to the phoenix.

[ 5 ]

There are six great names of the present dynasty. These
are in order, Wang Shih-min (1592-1680 A.D.), Wang Chien
(1598-1677 A.D.), Wang Shih-ku (1632-1713 A.D.), Wang
Yuan-ch’i (1642-1715 A.D.), Wu Li (1715-1801 A.D.), and
Yun Shou-p’ing (1633-1690 A.D.). They are usually spoken
of as the four Wangs, Wu and Yun. They were all land¬
scape painters except the last, who began with landscape
but gave it up, saying, “As long as Wang Shih-ku paints
landscape I will confine myself to flowers.” Their pictures
command as high a price as those of the old masters.

The earliest painters in the East as in the West began
with frescoing. Their first work was portrait, then figure,
to which were added flowers, and touches of their surround¬
ings, which gradually developed into landscape. As early
as 300 A.D., we have a record of silk having been used as
a ground-work. Later they began using paper, though silk
has always been most popular, perhaps because of the way
it discolours with age, but a picture on paper is most highly
prized by the Chinese.

Their brush was the ordinary Chinese pen which was
invented by the builder of the Great Wall (221 B.C.); the
colors were either Chinese ink (falsely called India ink) or
pulverized minerals mixed with water and glue similar to
those used by the Italian masters of the fifteenth and six¬
teenth centuries.

We have in Chinese as in Western art both impressionism
and naturalism, and in addition we have finger-painting,
outline-painting, and what the Chinese call pai-miao, a
species of very fine outline-painting in which the hands and
faces of the figures are done as in naturalism.

The point of view of the Chinese artist in painting a
landscape is from a hill-top instead of from the level. This
makes his kakemonos three-fourths to four-fifths land and
the remainder sky, which is usually reversed in our own
landscapes. The effect upon us in first viewing them is to
make them seem to have one part piled upon the other in¬
stead of behind it, and thus lose its perspective. In a
makemono it is different. He takes the same viewpoint as

[ 6 ]

we do and produces a similar perspective. It was said of
Wang Shih-ku that he could put 3,000 miles of perspective
on a fan.

The Chinese artist spreads his silk or paper on the table
before him, and begins at the bottom to sketch in his pic¬
ture. This he often does with a bit of burnt incense or
charred willow twigs. When the sketch is completed he
begins painting from the same point, doing the black and
white with ink and spreading on his colors when his ink
work is completed. One of his chief difficulties is that his
ink is indelible and a mark once put upon the canvas can
never be erased.

I. T. H.

New York, March 13th, 1909.

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LIST OF PAINTINGS

8 MAKEMONO, by Yin Hao, 339 A.D. (Sung Copy).

9 PEACH-BLOOM WITH SNOW THEREON, with Su

Shih’s name and Seal, 1036 - 1101 .

This sprig of peach-bloom is evidently from the Sung Dynasty.

It is intended to represent a peach-tree limb with blossoms and
snow together upon it, in illustration of a verse from a poem which
alludes to this fact. This picture is best viewed from a distance of
thirty or forty feet. Notice that the snow and flowers are simply
the blank paper, and illustrates the principle of space and plane
painting.

10 LANDSCAPE, by Mi Fei, 1051 - 1107 .

Mi Fei was one of those artistic freaks that are found in all coun¬
tries. He dressed in the fashion of the previous dynasty, was
eccentric in manner, and consequently attracted many visitors,
would use no towels or dishes that had been used by anyone else,
always went about with a handkerchief full of pebbles, and knocked
his head on the ground to a large irregular rock which he addressed
as “ Brother.” He was a fossil in all kinds of ancient learning, de¬
lighted in doing the opposite of what others did, admired what they
cared nothing for, and disregarded what they admired. But he was
a Master as an artist. His mountains tapered into sharp peaks,
the valleys were filled with clouds, and he remains to-day a Master
of 800 years’ standing.

20 ON THEIR WAY TO THE MOON.

This picture represents Yeh Fa-hsi, a celebrated magician, and
the Emperor T’ang Ming Huang (eighth century A.D.) starting on
their trip to the Moon. They were met at this place by six fairies
riding on cranes or phoenixes, and beautiful stories are told of what
they saw in the Moon. (We have a book in MSS., which we are
about to publish, called Folklore and Fairy Tales, which contains
these stories.)

21 LANDSCAPE, by Liu Sung-nien, twelfth and thirteenth

centuries.

Liu Sung-nien was a native of the Chehkiang Province, where so
many of the best artists came from, and was a student in the Col¬
lege of Arts of the Sung Dynasty. In 1190 A.D. he was a Proba¬
tioner in the Han-lin College, and was presented with a “ Gold-
belt ” by the Emperor for his scholarship and his proficiency in art.

He ranks among the second-rate artists of the Sung Dynasty
according to Chinese critics.

23 MONGOLS HUNTING, by Chao Meng-fu, 1254-1322 0
A.D.

This picture represents six Mongols hunting on horseback, four
with bows and arrows, one with a ball and chain, about to strike a
cow, and the fifth with an eagle or hawk on his arm, presumably

[ 9 ]

only riding about scaring up the game. The men and horses,
chiefly the horses, are the important part of the picture, as Chao
Meng-fu and Han Kan are the most noted horse painters of the
Empire. Writers on art give Chao Meng-fu the highest praise,
saying that the work of the T’ ang painters was indifferent, and that
of the Sung was rough compared with his. His wife, the Lady
Kuan, and his son were both noted artists, and at times they united
in painting a single picture, each doing the part he could do best.

25 TWO CRANES, by Lii Chii, fifteenth century.

Size 53 in. x25 in. Lii Chii was Court painter during the Ming
dynasty. He often embodied a suggestion or exhortation in his
pictures for the Emperor, until His Majesty one day remarked in
a quotation: “ The artist used his picture to remonstrate with his
Lord,” adding, “in truth you are the man.” Chung K’uei was a
student who entered the examinations during the T’ang dynasty,
but failing to take his degree, went and killed himself. The Em¬
peror hearing that there was a man in his kingdom who killed him¬
self because he failed to get his degree, conferred it on him
posthumously. This so worked upon the spirit of Chung K’uei
that he determined to return to the world and protect the Emperors
from evil spirits, which he has done from that time to the present.

27 LANDSCAPE, by Ch’ien Ku, sixteenth century.

Ch ’ien Ku studied with the great artist Wen Cheng-ming, whose
methods he mastered. He was diligent to a fault, as it is said that
when he was not painting he did nothing but “Wash his inkstand
and burn incense.” He was noted for his landscapes and coloring
and as a poet, penman and essayist.

28 THE TORN FAN, by (Lan Ying), sixteenth century.

A scene from the “Dream of the Red Chamber,” the novel which
has been read perhaps by more people than any other novel in the
world. The story describes life in the homes of the rich. The boy
is the son of a Duke, the girls his maids. Ch ’ing Wen, the girl
with the torn fan, was not feeling well and thought the sound of
tearing fans would comfort her. She thereupon ripped up her fan,
and the boy Pao Yii, thinking that if such a small matter as tearing
fans would comfort her, he would get the fan of the other girl (She
Yiieh) for her. She Ytieh objects. The artist has tried to put a
lackadaisical look on the face of Ch ’ing Wen. Her chest-protector,
her girdle and her arm, as well as that of Pao Yu, show through
their gauze clothing. A thin bamboo screen is behind her through
which can be seen a vase, a musical instrument, etc.

29 LANDSCAPE—MAKEMONO, by Ch’iu Ying (Middle

of sixteenth century).

This landscape is a horizontal scroll, 10 ft, 6 in. long and 1 ft.
2 in. wide. It represents country and village life, methods of
travel in boats and sedan chairs, wild mountain scenery and peaceful
rice-farms. It is a spring scene, in which the peach trees are in
bloom. Men are seen riding donkeys, boys leading their cattle to
the field, women in their own courts at their wheels, and priests

[ 10 ]

with staff in hand are meditating as they saunter among the trees.
It is a specimen of Ch’iu Ying’s finest work in landscape, trees and
figures. This artist excelled in more lines than perhaps any modern
painter, being celebrated for his figures, birds, animals, landscapes,
buildings and vehicles, and he is supposed to be a re-birth of Chao
Po-chii of the Sung Dynasty (twelfth century A. D.). He and
Wang Hui are imitated by many modern artists.

32 100 BIRDS PAYING THEIR RESPECTS TO THE
PHOENIX, by Wu Chuan, sixteenth century.

This lady, Miss Wu, afterwards married a Mr. Wang, but always
signed her pictures by her maiden name, as did many of the lady
artists, unless their husbands were noted painters. We are told
that she “cultivated the field of her ink-slab for a living,” painting
bamboo, rocks, flowers and birds, being celebrated also as a poet
and penman. This is one of her best pieces of realistic work.
She desired to paint 100 birds, and conceived the idea of having
them pay their respects, or worship to the Phoenix, the king and
queen of birds. Notice the male and female phoenix in the center,
while the birds are resting, flying or swimming with their heads
turned toward them. We call attention to the hawk, the black
crane and the small bird perched on the sprig of bamboo.

34 LANDSCAPE, by Wang Hui, 1632 - 1720 .

The six great painters of the present dynasty are “The Four
Wangs, Wu and Yun.” Wang Hui occupies the most prominent
position among the “Four Wangs,” was the man who could put
3,000 miles of landscape on a fan, and of whom Yun Ke—the Yun
of the six—said, “As long as he paints landscape I will confine
myself to flowers.” He came under the influence of the other
three Wangs, all of whom left their impress upon him. He was
neither Impressionist nor Realist, but an Eclectic, combining the
other two systems or schools. He is imitated by more artists since
his time than any of his contemporaries, or than any other artist of
the last two dynasties unless it be Ch’iu Ying, of the Ming. We
call attention to the various paths, roads and streams in the picture
together with the perspective, which of course is supposed to have
been seen from an elevation, and not from a level as in our own
landscapes.

35 A VISIT FROM THE FAIRY QUEEN, by Yu Chih-

ting and Wang Hui, seventeenth century.

The work on the landscape of this picture was done by Wang
Hui, 1632-1720, who is looked upon as the most famous landscape
painter of the present dynasty, but who was unable to paint figures.
It is said that he could put 3,000 miles of landscape on a fan. The
figures were painted by Yu Chih-ting, a celebrated painter of
legendary figures of the seventeenth century, after the style of the
Ming artist, Lan Ying. He later followed the style of the Sung
and Yuan Masters, and finally created a style of his own. He was
author of a volume of pictures called the Wang Hui Reproductions
—or pictures illustrating the work of Wang Hui. (For Wang Hui
see No. 34).

[ 11 ]

36 BIRD AND LOTUS, by (Pa Ta Shan Jen) Chu Ta,

seventeenth century.

Size 51 in. x 16 in. Chu Ta was a descendant of a Ming Prince,
who entered a monastery and took the vows of a Buddhist priest.
He was a high Impressionist in his art work, “ a free lance who
disregarded all the established rules of Chinese art.” His pictures
are mostly monochrome, flowers, birds, bamboo, trees and landscape.
His effort at making a lotus stem and leaf with two strokes of the
brush is characteristic.

37 BIRD ON LIMB, by Chu Ta, seventeenth century.

Size 26 in. x 10 in. High Impressionism. (For Chu Ta see No. 36.)

43 TAPESTRY, (FU, LU, SHOU), HAPPINESS, PROS¬
PERITY, and LONG LIFE, seventeenth century.

This piece of tapestry, as the inscription above it indicates, was
woven for the Emperor (probably K’ang Hsi) and was given by him
as a present to one of his favorite officials. It has pictures of three
persons representing Happiness (the man with the child in his arms),
Prosperity and Long Life. The bat is called fu , which also means
happiness, as the peach also means long life. The pine tree on the
left by a play on words is made to mean 100, the rocks on the right
represent 10, and the plant of long life in the foreground “or more.”
The Emperor therefore wishes the one to whom he gives it ‘ ‘ happiness
upon happiness, long life upon long life—110 or more years of life.”
Many Chinese paintings are thus filled with beautiful thoughts and
have good wishes hidden away in them for the recipient himself to
discover.

47 GATHERING PUSSY WILLOWS, by Leng Mei, seven¬
teenth and eighteenth centuries.

This picture is a portrait of the man on the couch, with his chil¬
dren catching the willow blossoms as they fall to the ground. It
was painted by Leng Mei (a court painter of K’ang Hsi), who was
noted for his fine men and beautiful women. In 1711 he was ap¬
pointed to paint a picture of the birthday celebration, the art
decorations of which were under the superintendence of the cele¬
brated Wang Yuan-ch’i.

49 PEONIES, by Chiang T’ing-hsi, 1669-1732 A.D.

Chiang T’ing-hsi and his son Chiang P’u were two of the most
noted flower painters of the present dynasty. They were also
noted for the fact that they were both Grand Secretaries. Next to
Yiin Ke he is the most noted flower painter of the dynasty.

52 MADONNA, by Lang Shih-ning (Castiglioni), seven¬
teenth century.

This Madonna was painted by the Italian Jesuit, court painter to
the Emperor K’ang Hsi, and indicates that it is after the European
style. He has tried to paint the hair after the style of the time of
Christ, with not very good success. The drapery of the child
reminds us of the children of the Italian masters of the sixteenth
century.

[ 12 ]

58 THE A-FANG-KUNG, by Yuan Yiieh, eighteenth cen¬
tury.

This large landscape is by Yuan Yiieh, beginning of the eighteenth
century, a brother of one of the Court Painters, Yuan Chiang,
whose work this resembles. He, as well as his brother, did work
for the Emperor Yung Cheng, 1677-1735 A.D. The picture repre¬
sents the park or pleasure grounds of Ch’in Shih-Huang, the man
who built the Great Wall. This Hall was so high that a sixty-foot
banner could be unfurled within it, and so large that it would
accommodate 10,000 people. “ Seven hundred thousand criminals
and prisoners were employed at forced labor in its construction.”
This is a favorite study of Chinese artists who are experts as
painters of buildings. Several copies of these brothers’ work are
in this collection.

55 LANDSCAPE, by Yuan Yiieh. (See No. 58 .)

56 LANDSCAPE, by Yuan Yiieh. (See No. 58 .)

57 LANDSCAPE, by Yuan Chiang. (See No. 58 .)

60 LANDSCAPE, by Yiian Chiang. (See No. 58 .)

61 SMALL LANDSCAPE, by Yiian Yiieh. (See No. 58 .)

62 THE CHINESE JOAN OF ARC, according to the

(Pai-miao) Outline Method.

This picture represents the Chinese Joan of Arc, painted by the
Pai-miao or outline method. Only the face and hand are done com¬
pletely, the remainder being only in outline. Several great artists
are mentioned as being celebrated as Pai-miao painters, among
whom are Yao Yuan-chih of the present dynasty and Ch’iu Ying of
the Ming. The picture has no inscription upon it and it is useless
to speculate as to its author.

63 GODDESS OF MERCY WITH CHILD, beginning

of the eighteenth century.

The inscription on this painting was written during the fifth
month of the year 1707, during the reign of the Emperor K’ang Hsi.
The painting looks as if it had Italian influence in it, and when we
remember that this Emperor had some Europeans among his
Court painters, it is easy to account for it. It looks as if it had
been painted from a porcelain goddess of mercy, but whether this
is the case we cannot say. We have not been able to read the
inscription. Notice the expression of the eyes, and the preserva¬
tion of the colors.

64 TIGER, by Ma Fu-t’u, eighteenth century. “Finger
Painting. ”

The two most noted finger painters of the present dynasty are
perhaps Kao Ch’i-p’ei and Ma Fu-t’u. The former was much more
noted and more varied in his style, but the latter did better work as

[13]

a painter of tigers than any we have yet seen even with the brush.
The Chinese can hardly be considered as excelling in animal paint¬
ing, though there are some who have done well as painters of
horses, and we have seen some good cows.

In finger painting the artist mixes his ink on his ink-stone, dips
his finger into it, and with the end of his finger makes the coarse
lines, while with his finger nail he makes the fine lines.

67 “COME OVER WITH ME,” by Kao Ch’i-p’ei. Died

1734 A.D.

Size 36 in. x 20 in. Finger painting. Kao Ch’i-p’ei is the most
noted “finger-painter” of the present dynasty. A finger-painter
uses no brush, but simply mixes his paint—or India ink—and then
dips his finger in it, and thus puts it on his paper or silk. This
artist could paint better with the brush than with his finger, but is
chiefly known as a finger-painter, and is always thus spoken of.

68 THE EIGHT IMMORTALS OF TAOISM, Tapestry,

Eighteenth century.

This piece of tapestry illustrates the Eight Immortals of the Taoists
returning on a cloud-path from a meeting in the Celestial regions with
Lao Tzu, the founder of their sect. This is a peculiar kind of
tapestry called Kua Jung, in which the figures have a satin finish,
while the ground has a silk finish. The ordinary tapestry is called
K’e Ssu by the Chinese.

Size 67 in. by 40 in.

71 THE FAIRY, MA KU, by Ku Lo, last of eighteenth

and beginning of nineteenth century.

Ma Ku is the most popular study with artists of all Taoist fabulous
celebrities. She is supposed to have lived about the beginning of
the second century, and she, with her brother, were two of the most
expert soothsayers of the time. She reclaimed a large tract of land
from the sea in the region of Shanghai, which she changed into
orchards and rice fields, and hence her appearance often with a hoe
on her shoulder. She is supposed not to have died, but to have
sublimated and become a fairy, and because of this she is given as a
birthday present to a lady, wishing her long life, as Father Time is
given to a man. She usually holds the plant of long life, or the
peach of longevity, in her hand, and is not infrequently represented
with a deer beside her. The reason for this is that the word for
deer is /«, and another word of the same sound means prosperity.
Ku Lo stands at the head of the painters of pretty women of the
present dynasty.

72 GOING TO THE BATH, by Kai Ch ’i, eighteenth and

nineteenth centuries.

Was a native of Turkestan, but his father served as an official in
the region of Shanghai. He was a clever painter of fine men and
beautiful women, the lines in his draperies being among the finest
and most perfect of any of the artists of his time. He was a
poet and a penman. This picture was painted in 1827 , and its

[14]

proper title is “Introducing the Lichi.” It represents China’s only
“stout beauty,” Yang Kuei Fei, the concubine of Ming Huang,
eating the lichi before going to her bath.

74 LANDSCAPE, by Yung Jung, eighteenth and nine¬
teenth centuries.

Yung Jung was the sixth son of the Emperor Ch’ien Lung, who
was contemporaneous with Washington for 60 years, which time he
occupied the throne.

79 LANDSCAPE, by Sung Ling, eighteenth century.

Size 5 ft. 6 in. x 2 ft. 8 in. It represents the Four Old Men
who fled to the Mountains during the troubulous times of the Han
Dynasty. Two of them are represented as sitting by a table in a
forest of large pine trees, one with a pen in his hand ready to paint
a picture or write a scroll, the other with a scepter, the while they
gaze at a crane which is supposed to be bringing them news from
the busy world. One of the others is stepping over a ravine with
the assistance of a lad, while the fourth is standing by waiting for
him, they two having been for a stroll among the hills. There is
another lad with a bundle of scrolls under his arm, while still
another is preparing them tea. It is one of the few pictures in
which the artist has given the faces a proper Mongol color, the
bronze of which has been deepened by the summer sun.

80 LANDSCAPE, by Tung Pang-ta, eighteenth century.

Died in 1745 .

Size 5 ft. 11 in. x 3 ft. 1 in. It is painted on paper in mono¬
chrome. It was done for the Emperor Ch ’ien Lung, whose seal is
imprinted thereon, by his Court painter and Grand Secretary, Tung
Pang-ta. This man and his son, Tung Kao, were both great
landscape painters, and both Grand Secretaries, as well as great
scholars. The picture is somewhat impressionistic, the outlines
being dim, but from the point of view of the Chinese artist is of a
high type of art. The top left-hand corner has been torn off, pre¬
sumably with an inscription which was written upon it.

82 FATHER OF MIN CHEN, by Min Chen, eighteenth
and nineteenth centuries.

Min Chen’s parents died during his childhood, and, as he had no
picture of them to which to offer sacrifice on feast days, he felt very
sad. When he grew up he studied art, and one night he dreamed
that he saw his parents going in the direction of his old home. He
told a friend the next morning, and this friend said : “ That is very
singular; I saw two just such persons as you describe going in the
direction of your old home ; you might overtake them.” He there¬
upon followed them, and when he had arrived at his home his
parents were there, and he at once painted their pictures. That of
his father was “ an old man in tattered garments, with a basket on
his arm, leaning upon a staff.” He had no sooner finished his
picture than his parents vanished, having returned only to allow
him to paint them because of his filial affection. The spiritual
nature of the picture is seen from the smoke issuing from the gourd.
High impressionism.

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83 A REFINED GATHERING IN THE WEST GAR¬
DEN, by Chin Shih, eighteenth century.

This picture is a copy of one painted by Li Kung-lin (1070 A. D.).
It represents sixteen of the eminent men of the day distributed in
groups about the garden. Su Shih is sitting at a table writing a
poem ; his brother Su Che is reading a book; Li Kung-lin is paint¬
ing a picture; T’ao Yuan-ming is going home after resigning his
office; Mi Fei, looking upward, is writing upon the rocks; while a
Buddhist priest, sitting upon his mat, is discussing the doctrine of
re-incarnation. These, with a few other friends and servants, com¬
plete the picture. This is a good piece of color work. A very
important book of pictures by Chin Shih is “People Without a
Double.”

86 MANCHURIAN VULTURE, nineteenth century.
Artist unknown.

106 PICTURE OF THE EMPRESS DOWAGER AS THE
GODDESS OF MERCY.

The Empress Dowager copies the “Gospel of the Goddess of
Mercy” with her own pen, has her portrait painted as the Goddess
of Mercy, which she puts in it as a frontispiece, has it bound in
yellow silk, enclosed in a yellow silk box, and presents it to her
favorite officials either on their birthdays or on feast days. These
books are prized very highly by the officials receiving them and are
preserved as heir-looms in their families.

109 ONE OF SEVEN PICTURES BY EMPRESS
DOWAGER.

One of these is an old tree—a good specimen of impressionism ;
of the others one is a peony, impressionistic; another is the plant
of long life, and the four small ones are peach blossoms in mono¬
chrome. The Empress Dowager spent a good part of her early
years in studying art and painting, with The Lady Miao, one of the
best lady artists of the present day, as her teacher. She keeps
eighteen Court painters, who are divided into three groups, each of
which are on duty ten days of each month, from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m.
These artists paint whatever she may require—herself as the
Goddess of Mercy, backgrounds for her to be photographed, deco¬
rations for the Palace, or pictures for her to give as birthday or
other presents to her friends or officials.

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